Please Welcome Nyorloth!

I remember when Nyorloth came to our department the cold, the twisted, the terrible Community offices of unnumbered crimes. Our manager had told me of him, and of the impelling fascination and allurement of his revelations, and I burned with eagerness to explore his uttermost mysteries. Our manager said they were horrible and impressive beyond my most fevered imaginings; and what was thrown on a screen in the darkened room prophesied things none but Nyorloth dared prophesy, and in the whirl of his papers there was taken from men that which had never been taken before yet which showed only in the eyes. And I heard it hinted abroad that those who knew Nyorloth looked on sights which others saw not.

It was in the cold winter that I went through the night with the restless Community moderators to see Nyorloth; through the stifling night and up the endless stairs into the choking room. And shadowed on a screen, I saw wailing forms buried under Global Writing Contest entries, and grinning faces hidden amidst ruins of cities. And I saw worlds battling against blackness; against the waves of destruction from ultimate space; whirling, churning, struggling around the dimming, cooling suns. Then the paper storm played amazingly around the heads of the spectators, and hair stood up on end whilst shadows more grotesque than I can tell came out and squatted on the heads. And when I, who was colder and more scientific than the rest, mumbled a trembling protest about paper cuts and ocular fortitude, Nyorloth drove us all out, down the dizzy stairs into the damp, hot, deserted developer offices. I screamed aloud that I was not afraid; that I never could be afraid; and others screamed with me for solace. We swore to one another that the Community offices were exactly the same, and filled with purpose; and when the florescent lights sometimes do fade we curse the electric company over and over again, and laugh at the strange faces we make.

What I know of Nyorloth is his inscrutable purpose; sinisterly sentient, dumbly delirious, only the Old Gods can tell. To look upon him now I see a sickened, sensitive shadow writhing in hands that are not hands, and whirl blindly past ghastly midnights of rotting creation, corpses of dead worlds with sores that were cities, charnel winds that brush the pallid stars and make them flicker low. Beyond these worlds vague ghosts of monstrous things; half-seen columns of unsanctifled temples that rest on nameless rocks beneath space and reach up to dizzy vacua above the spheres of light and darkness. And through this revolting graveyard of the universe the muffled, maddening beating of drums, and thin, monotonous whine of blasphemous flutes from inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time; the detestable pounding and piping whereunto dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic, tenebrous Old Gods the blind, voiceless, mindless gargoyles whose soul is Nyorloth.

In a break from tradition, I am not a member of the Community team; long have I gestated within the Story Development division of the Publishing Team, itself a division of Creative Development. My purposes here are myriad, but to mention a few:

- Increase the transparency of how we develop stories within our games and ancillary fiction.- Encourage more constructive discussions of the lore, so that we may better understand your likes/dislikes in order to shape our future projects.- To serve as a scapegoat for when something happens in the lore that you don’t like.

Again, those are just a few of the reasons I will be monitoring and posting on the Story Forums (WoW, SC, Diablo). Perhaps you will discover more reasons for my presence?

- Increase the transparency of how we develop stories within our games and ancillary fiction.

My curiosity has been awoken...

In the past, certain fansites did some Q&As with some of the novel authors like Richard A. Knaak and Christie Golden about the process that went into writing some of their books (Stormrage, Lich King, etc.). I always thought that was super interesting, because it gave insight in terms of how those books came about.So if that's the kind of stuff that's anywhere near your field of work, you're my best friend now :P

Likewise, the WoW Magazine did an article with the WoW quest designers I recall, which was very cool to read as well, because it gave a little sneak-peak into the process of how quests come about in WoW.

Ok, Mr Scapegoat, the great squidhead (I forget what they are called...I suspect Mindless ones but I dunno)

I have two suggestions which are complicated when you think about it (Which every employee is no doubt aware of)

-Cdev department re-organisation (pointing at the Reindeer) should make things hectic and have people scramberling to pump out the best work (Aka we have some interesting lore from that chaos). I have a helpful tip for this, those with a ratio of ego:quality writing that has high ego....they need to go down (Cant say fire, that is unfair)

-I would demand a higher budget, A greater budget is basically equal to more wiggle room and thus Writers and Cdev can spend more time on the lore and Stories

Also a personal Greivance about Dragon Soul Patch.....

-Why are Sylvanas, Jaina, Baine and tyrande ever so specifically there......If its because they needed to be used somewhere......well you could have explained it better.....For instance, Sylvanas could have been cornered in her attempt to flee the attacking cultists...-And .....well why exactly did that happened.....Its interest is severely lost with a more precise explanation which "Because murozond screwed everything up" or something similair-Twilight hour - I still insist that Archbishop being the twilight father is still a wtf moment-Twilight Hour - I liked the elf, didnt understand reallly why she joined them-Twilight Hour - I just barely understood it from a lore point of view (purpose is clear, dragon soul.....get to temple)

More than one but still. If i was a critic (unlike yahtzee from Zero Puncutuation) i would rate it a 2 star patch....1 star for the trailer

Edit: Probably should have said this at the end but..."Just wanted to get this off my chest"

One of the major grievances (besides the linearity and hence making the replayability less and less; account-wide Achievements won't exactly increase replayability, either) I have with the story at the moment is that the actual gameplay doesn't match the Quest texts ie you get hailed like a hero while doing nothing special, without having the option to actually try and tackle more heroic, more challenging Quest lines. You have less and less options to weave your own story.

It severely breaks immersion - which already has taken a back seat with optional content like Class - and the original style Dungeon Quests being removed by Cata (the well-known disappearance of the 'World' in World of Wacraft) - and is deterimental to my enjoyment of the game, as you're basically 'trapped' because so many options have been removed from the game, be it more appropriately difficult Quests or in general being able to weave your own story (if I play two characters through Silverpine, each will have 99% the same story, with teh Cata zones being even worse).

But you see, there's your problem! You're a hunter with a bear. Being a bear druid is much more fun, and we have hats. No really, I'm not lying!... Okay, maybe I am lying just a little. I don't even use my bear form! :<